Etched In Bone Quotes
"Humans—those invasive two-legged predators—had made war against the terra indigene, killing the smaller shifters in the wild country that bordered Cel-Romano, a place that was on the other side of Ocean’s domain."
" said the oldest male who had made the journey to this place. "
" a female asked, shocked."
"She was not like the human enemies. She was not prey. She and her kind were Namid’s creation, wondrous and terrible."
" the eldest male finally asked."
"The teaching stories told them there were different kinds of humans, but what made one human respectful of the land and the boundaries that had been set while another killed and left the meat, or tried to take away the homes of the feathered and furred?"
"Witnessing the stories that would flow into the wild country was worth the risk of human contamination."
" Blair’s growl wasn’t as soft this time."
"Humans were clever, invasive predators who had recently shown the terra indigene once again why they could never be fully trusted—not even by one another."
"Meg hadn’t given a thought to how little she was wearing, but if she was noticing Simon’s body, was he also noticing hers?"
"He had brought her into the Courtyard, offering her the job of Human Liaison before discovering that she was a blood prophet, a cassandra sangue—a breed of human females who saw visions of the future when their skin was cut."
"Meg closed her eyes and placed her fingers on the cards again. When she’d selected the three that had produced the severest prickling, she took them to the big wooden sorting table and turned them over in the order she’d chosen them."
"What will the new mayor mean to Lakeside? A big question mark. Future undecided."
"Because of Meg, the Courtyard’s residents interacted with humans in ways that were unprecedented—or, at least, hadn’t been considered in centuries."
"The Others were attacked and some were killed, and that enraged the residents of the wild country—the terra indigene that every cop who ever did a tour of duty in the wild country prayed he would never see."
"The first card had three images: train, bus, car. The second card had an explosion. The third card... the question mark. Future undecided."
"But physically they were so much weaker than other kinds of predators. This not drinking, for example. Nothing wrong with the water in the trough."
"Maybe one of the humans knew it. But he didn’t think Meg knew it, wasn’t sure she would be strong enough to carry that weight on top of what she had been asked to do already."
"She was the pebble dropped in a pond that was the Lakeside Courtyard, and the ripples of her presence had changed so many things, including the terra indigene who had befriended her."
"Our survival depends on the goodwill we can generate."
"I don’t think people have truly taken in how much was lost in recent weeks—or how much more we could lose if we’re not very careful now."
"We are lucky. So many places are isolated now. We don’t even know yet how many places, how many people were lost."
"You know how Mom and Dad look when they’re having a very intense discussion, which really means they’re having an argument about something?"
"It feels weird to choose furniture that belonged to people who were killed by the Elders, but people buy furniture and other things from estate sales all the time, and I guess this is sort of the same thing."
"The business of living doesn’t stop because the world changes."
"What we need now are adults who can run the other businesses."
"That does it for this place. This cream color isn’t exciting, but it’s a good neutral, and doing all the apartments in the same color sure makes it easier."
"Aren’t your own children also family, Sierra?"
"No one taught me; I just hold a pencil and things get drawn on the paper."
"We’re sure. You know how to run a bookstore, and you know how to work with humans."
"Not enough to damage them, not even enough to be noticed by the humans, especially in the morning, when the caffeine from the coffee would mask the little extra bit of fatigue."
"With all the other kinds of food available, those sips had been enough to sustain her, if not satisfy her."
"I don’t want to be a dispatcher or a secretary. I don’t want to work for the police; I want to be a police officer."
"Being different didn’t mean she couldn’t fit in."
"I probably wouldn’t have traveled to Lakeside if I hadn’t run away from the Controller and followed the visions that showed me how to escape."
"So why are you dumber now than you used to be?"
"All those things happened because you’re different, Meg. Don’t be so quick to want to be like everyone else."
"You don’t have to eat them. And I promise I won’t try to sneak any of them on your plate and trick you into eating them."
"After a pup is weaned, there’s not a lot of milk in the wild country."
"It was a single voice, but it would be enough to wake the pack. Both packs."
"Every factory that built the weapons that were used against the shifters was destroyed."
"The land doesn’t look different—there are still roads and human farms and villages—but it feels different. Dangerous."
"All meat hopped or ran or flew before it became meat. That is the way of things."
"I don’t want to be a bunny! Bunnies get eaten!"
"The counter hid him below the waist, so she refused to consider what anyone pulling up for a delivery could see through the glass door."
"Not all the hunters who look for food in the Courtyard are terra indigene."
"I’m not sure what’s going on, but the children are safer where they are."
"Families are complicated, and family loyalty can push a person into making difficult, even imprudent, choices."
"Maybe it just makes you sick, makes you weak, makes you forget who you really are and what you really want. But if you keep drinking, sooner or later, the poison will kill you."
"You owe him because the resources for two children had to be divided three ways?"
"Words can beat down a person as surely as fists."
"You’re an adult and you’re going to lose a lot more than a cookie."
"I want to keep my girls. And I don’t want to die."
"You couldn't help someone who didn't want help. That was a hard, and bitter, life lesson."
"We're not going far enough into the Courtyard to reach the creeks. Won't be for a while."
"If we're not careful, we may not be welcome in the Market Square stores much longer, and that's going to make it harder on all of us."
"I hope that bridge is burned for good. Not sure what that says about me, but I hope it is."
"You let me know what the women want to do about sharing the meat ration. I'll participate."
"But you don’t." His father had taught him many things, but his mother had taught him the value of courtesy. She’d taught him to respect the feelings of others. And both his parents had taught him to stand up for himself without beating down someone else.
"It’s easy to say we’re helping Sierra in order to help the girls," Twyla said. "It’s easy because it’s true," Monty replied quietly.
"Not this time, Crispin. Helping her keep on this way. That’s called enabling, isn’t it?"
"You don’t like what we pay, then find another job," Simon snarled, showing fangs.
"I can’t do that. If I help you, the Others will take the girls."
"For a smart girl who did so well at school, I swear, Sissy, sometimes you can be stupid."
"Our Meg! Our Meg!" Jenni Crowgard knelt in front of her.
"I’d better get moving if I’m going to catch the bus," Kowalski said.
"You could carry the clothes for me," Sam suggested to Meg.
"The Hawk would have let him get outside, so he couldn’t claim he meant to pay," Simon explained about the shoplifting incident.
"She is pack," Simon said about Sierra. "But if her pups are going to survive, she needs a new pack now."
"That Cyrus is not the kind of human who normally would go near the wild country," Simon pondered.
"We could be eating yogurt," Simon humorously contemplated after debating the dinner menu.
"Too bad the freaks didn’t seem interested in humping. Sandee might be worth her keep if they were."
"Just a distraction that would draw attention away from the Market Square," the man said. "Enough commotion and noise to let me get in and out. What do you think?"
"Five hundred dollars would set him up for a little while, especially if Sandee didn’t know he had the money."
"If you need to move in a hurry, how am I going to get the rest?"
"Tomorrow." The man held out a hand. "Do we have a deal?"
"Not everything. Skippy remembers what’s important to Skippy."
"When someone makes a request for a treat, that person should say please. That’s the polite thing to do."
"If he’d gotten Theral out of the Courtyard, we wouldn’t have found her alive."
"To leave them alone to find their own way to deal with the world and their cursed gift of prophecy. That would be the kindest thing we could do for them."
"Driving around town is discouraged, as a way to save gasoline."
"Thing is, there are two empty apartments in this building and another empty one in the other building. That’s just a waste when someone could be living there."
"Anyone who comes here without the Others’ permission is an intruder. They deal harshly with intruders."
"Jimmy, your free ride as a guest is pretty much done. If you’re going to stay in Lakeside, you should find work and another place to live while you still have the choice."
"Trying takes courage. How many of you got it right the first time?"
"Even in the grimiest bars, the talk was the same: you usually could buy some kind of food at the stores where your ration books were registered, but butcher shops still ran out of meat before the next shipment arrived."
"A Wolf would munch on a ripe apple and be happy."
"All those vendors at the market were Intuits. Maybe they had a feeling that what they were contributing to this meal would make a difference for everyone in the long run."
"The motto in my parents’ house was ‘no unkind words, no unkind deeds.’ And if you were unkind, even unintentionally, you were expected to at least try to make things right."
"We may have gone a bit overboard with the number of dishes we prepared, but we wanted enough variety for everyone."
"Who knew human females could be so fussy? A Wolf would munch on a ripe apple and be happy."
"All good things, when thinking of the Lakeside Courtyard as a place for advanced training in human interactions."
"He should have reminded them that he was their employer and they shouldn’t speak to him that way, but he’d been hungry and outnumbered and there had been too many sharp knives and pointy utensils within their reach."
"Making his way to the door, Simon noticed Lieutenant Montgomery, who had also stopped in for lunch."
""You can ‘Grandma’ me all you want. Doesn’t change the fact that you can hold that bowl by yourself. Miss Meg showed you how.""
""Of course not. They have to learn to hunt, as well as learn to protect their share of the food.""
""That’s what I thought. I guess Wolves and my mama have some things in common when it comes to raising children.""
""The sweet blood knows how much I enjoy watching my old movies.""
""Then learn. Simon and Vladimir are friends. They work together, live as neighbors, have fought well together."
""That wasn’t as easy to do when you knew everyone in a small town—and they knew you."